HOUSTON – A man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after police say he shot a transgender woman in the face and then robbed her.
Christian Lucas was originally charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon but pleaded down to aggravated assault threat with a deadly weapon.
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On Wednesday, Lucas pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
What Happened
On November 13, 2022, Houston police responded to reports of a shooting at 10155 East Freeway and found a woman shot in the face.
According to court documents, the woman told officers that she met Lucas on a dating app called “Tagged” the day before, and after talking to him all day, she picked him up on Bissonnet and decided to spend the entire night with him at a hotel. The woman said eventually things turned bad when Lucas got angry with her because she did not want to have sex with him without protection.
Around 8 a.m. the following morning, the woman said she awoke to Lucas packing her cell phone, car keys and wallet into a bag. When Lucas noticed that she was awake, court documents say he shot the woman in the face, tearing her entire bottom jaw. The woman said she then pretended to play dead and watched Lucas leave the hotel room.
Surveillance video from the hotel allegedly caught Lucas running out of the room and fleeing in the woman’s 2014 Black Nissan Sentra.
Investigators said the woman survived the shooting but needed extensive reconstruction surgery. Doctors at Ben Taub Hospital advised her that it would take many more surgeries to repair her lower jaw, but she may never be able to fully recover her speech.
Two weeks after the surgery, investigators said the woman was able to write out her statement and provide detectives with a phone number and name of the suspect. The woman was able to identify Lucas from a photo lineup.